Falling Towards The Sky
by TheMixKage
Summary: Link Avalon, leading Guardian Squad, is tasked with HALO jumping into hostile territory to secure a High Value Target and escape. Military AU. Oneshot for world-building practice.


_Unknown location, 2001 BM, 1:12 AM_

The constant _whir whir whir_ of the Loftwing engines were loud, but that was good. It helped keep Link awake and alert as he stood. The contours of the troop transport seats didn't really fit the curve of his back, especially with his parachute on. He thought back to his first jump, as a child, and smiled. Life had been so different then, but now, when the adrenaline pumped through his system, he wouldn't have it any other way. Even the forty-five minute session of sitting in the Loftwing and breathing pure oxygen to flush out all nitrogen from his bloodstream had seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

The mission briefing had Avalon taking Guardian Squad and performing a HALO jump to avoid any Gerudo anti-aircraft or anti-ballistics systems that might register his squad as an incoming missile. Two of their squad storming the building from the roof access, while the others cut off all escape routes outside. They would eventually push up, and meet up at the middle floors. From there, a beacon would be placed to alert all Hyrulian military forces in the area that a High-Value-Target had been captured, and to pick it up. Quick, easy, and would be literally flying under the radar.

The breaching charges attached to the front of his chest jutted up slightly under his chin, where his rushed packing hadn't pushed it all the way to the bottom of the pouch. Slipping his hand into one of his modular pouches, Link checked again for the coiled detcord for the charges. Another wave of pressure jerked him against the cabin. Avalon looked up to the series of plastic loops attached to the cabin of the Loftwing aircraft and grabbed hold. Turbulence at 50,000 feet was surprisingly brutal. He patted his chest to make sure none of his loaded rifle magazines had been jostled during the flight into Gerudo territory.

Link moved his hand up, making sure that the Scotch tape he had placed on the rings of his high explosive fragmentation grenades hadn't slipped. He had learned the hard way that grenade pins could easily get snagged on a magazine feeder, or a belt buckle here, or on one of the many hooks and loops on his suit. After confirming that they were indeed still taped down, he sat back and relaxed into his chair. Looking forward, he gazed at Saria, Guardian Two, who stared back right at him, silver faceplate impossible to read. To the left, the rest of his squad sat or stood. They were jostled up and down in their seats, helmets bobbing in the tumultuous chaos of the Loftwing.

A voice crackled over the COM. "Guardian, two minutes out from target building, repeat, two minutes out."

Link performed a manual weapons check, then yanked the sling strap on his M55 down, pulling the rifle tight against his chest. At terminal velocity, any loose object that might buffet up and clip his jaw could result at best, a nasty bruise, and at worst, a concussion and unconsciousness. Then he reached down to his right hip, making sure his sidearm was secure in its hard case holster.

"Last checks, Guardian."

Pulling the straps on his parachute tight, he then motioned to Saria, making a _turn around_ gesture as Guardian did the same with the others. She complied, and Link checked to make sure all parachute straps were tight on her. He pulled the harness straps twice to make sure they were taut, then the straps across her midriff. Squeezing her shoulder, he gave her the thumbs up signal. Saria quickly returned the favor, followed by a terse, "You're good."

Avalon nodded, then spoke into the COM, "Guardian, we set?"

The rest of his squad stared back at his faceplate and as one, gave a nearly imperceptible nod.

"Yes, sir. Good to go."

Link swapped his COM frequency to the pilots' channel. "We're clear. Set to begin HALO jump descent, over."

"Roger that Guardian One. Clear to jump in one."

Link walked to the back of the aircraft. Red klaxon lights switched on, throwing a harsh glow on everything inside the cabin. Pulling the straps on his oxygen mask tight, he checked to make sure the oxygen tank was still connected solidly. Good to go. Link stared down at his feet, taking a deep breath.

The numbers in his head slowly clicked downwards in a countdown. Avalon started to go through a mental checklist.

Ten...nine...eight...

'Keep breathing. Never forget to keep moving.'

Seven.

'Confusion will be normal. Remember Operation: Kinetic, when you tumbled uncontrollably. Jumps will be dark.'

Six.

'Keep breathing. Oxygen levels will be low at this altitude.'

Five.

'If someone falls, remember the time spent with Parajumping and Rescue squads. Attach their oxygen first.'

Four.

'Keep calm.'

Three.

'Calm."

Two.

 _One._

The light turned green, the bay door opened, and the wind rushed up to greet him. The cold sliced at the exposed skin of his face, howling, like it was trying to pull him down into the dark abyss beneath him. Pinpricks of cold stabbed wherever it could. A flood of nostalgia ran through him, and he smiled, despite himself. Looking back, he saw his whole squad standing and waiting on his go. Steeling his wits, he willed his legs to push off, and he flew into the early morning sky.

Zero.

Slowly, Link extended his arms and legs. Feeling the gales rip at his limbs, he slowly angled himself toward the highlighted green beacon in his HUD. He knew that, despite the sublime darkness, his squad could still see his beacon in their HUDs, so he could change course without fearing that they might lose him.

Suddenly, a red light began to flash on the inside of his HUD. Someone was in trouble; one of his squad members was having a medical emergency. Switching his gaze from the ground beneath him to the upper right corner of his helmet, he saw a red diamond positioned over Guardian Two. Saria.

Turning on his night vision, everything glowed a sickly green, but he could more easily discern precise things that might threaten him while he tried to save her. It was a rule of first responders: _always check if the scene is safe_. Well, it was as safe as it could be in an officially declared war zone; no puffs of exploding flak rounds, missiles or other unpleasant items, so Link extended his legs and arms outwards even further, letting the drag slow him down in an effort to reach Guardian Two.

The person on top of him fell towards him quickly, and he flipped her around. Her eyes were open, widened beneath her depolarized faceplate, but she wasn't moving. The cause was easy to see. Her oxygen mask had been detached. The oxygen mask that Link had donned for the past hour or so was standard issue size, but Saria had always been more petite. More than likely, it had slipped off slightly during the jump, maybe gotten snagged on something, and the flurry below her had ripped it off completely, leaving it uselessly dangling above her. Still attached to her oxygen bottle, it hung just out of reach.

Just one breath of oxygen depleted air at this altitude could be enough to send her into extreme hypoxia, eventually leading to unconsciousness, like Saria right then. Saria's breathing was irregular, an extremely quick in-out pattern that repeated all too quickly. That would be hyperventilation, caused by hypoxia. As her body began to lose oxygen, it would try to get that oxygen by any means possible, so she would gasp and suck in as much air as she could.. And as she gasped, she would suck in more of this oxygen-depleted air, causing her body to lose more oxygen as a result. It was a vicious cycle that could, and would, kill Guardian Two if he didn't do anything, and _fast_.

Link grabbed the floating oxygen mask and attached it to Saria's face. He pulled the straps as tight as he could, then pinched the mask around her nose and mouth. Hugging her body tightly to his with his left hand, he readied his right hand around the parachute cord.

"Guardian, this is Guardian One. Guardian Two is down, oxygen depletion. She'll be back in a couple minutes, but until we hit the ground, she'll be dark."

A series of confirmations was fed back to him, and he studied his altimeter. Link calculated when he had to pull the cord. By traveling about fifty four meters a second, a rough calculation he spun up by computing wind drag and gravity, he would hit ground in two hundred seconds from when he jumped, from eleven thousand meters in the air. Opening should normally occur at roughly one thousand meters above the ground, so he subtracted twenty seconds. Taking an estimate, he had been in the air for about one ninety. He should've pulled the cords _ten seconds ago._

Link's breath caught in his throat. Avalon would need two hands to pull the cords though, so he unbuckled his pack, cursing as his gloved fingers fumbled with the awkward push-pull release system. If he let Saria go and activated his own parachute, the sudden deceleration would send him fluttering up, while she plummeted downwards, away from him like a rock. Loosening his straps to the maximum setting, he hooked it through Saria's own pack and waist then reclipped it.

Link yanked the cords downwards. Almost immediately, he felt the sudden _ripping_ sound as the nylon parachute unfurled explosively from his back. His legs and arms felt sore from the constant battering of the whirlwinds and his shoulders felt like they were going to rip off their sockets from the sudden deceleration. Along with the sudden slowing effect from the parachute, Link's and Saria's bodies were jerked from a freefalling position parallel to the ground to a somewhat gentler vertical feet first fall. Despite the fact that the nylon cords dug into his shoulders painfully, he grimaced and willed the pain away. There were larger problems ahead of him.

Namely, the ground.

Slowly, the earth beneath his feet, which had looked like a miniscule ant hill from the Loftwing, now looked huge and was growing faster and faster. As the target building came into view, Link changed his trajectory so he would land on the roof. He couldn't breathe; he was coming in too fast. He had pulled the parachute too late...

Then the building came rushing up to meet him and his dangling feet hit the building. The breath left his lungs involuntarily, and he crumpled to the ground. Gasping, the first thing that he noticed was the pain in his lower legs. Everything hurt, and his vision was bordered with black all around the edges. His shins burned, like someone had taken his legs and smashed them up with a hammer, then crammed them into as tight of a ball as possible. From personal experience, he had fractured one, if not both shins. But he was not the top priority. His squad, his teammates, were. Pulling his gloves off, Avalon reached for Saria's neck.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt a slight pulse, a steadily rising tempo. Her pulse read green in his HUD as well. She was going to be okay. But even if she was alive, safe was not exactly a word Link could use in this circumstance. They had landed on top their target building full of hostiles. And now with his legs possibly broken and Guardian Two down, they weren't exactly in fighting condition, much less a lightning fast raid in search of a HVT. _Shit._

Unstrapping Saria from his pack, he unstrapped his M55 rifle from its sling. The single entrance into the rest of the building from the top of the roof was directly ahead of him, a small door in a little smoke-house looking shed. From there, a staircase led downwards to the rest of the thirty floors.

As Link was pondering whether or not to crawl to the staircase and try to contact his squad, the door was suddenly flung open, and two puzzled looking Gerudos walked outwards, weapons in hand. Link tensed but they didn't seem to notice him; they had probably heard the sound of him falling to the ceiling and came out to investigate. He thanked whatever goddess was watching over him right then for the darkness. He, however, could see them fine, courtesy of the night vision in his HUD inside his helmet.

Raising his silenced rifle, he sighted the closest of the two and pulled the trigger. A trio of rounds caught her in her shoulder and she stumbled, but didn't drop. Avalon cursed; shooting from the ground forward threw his aim off. As the two women jerked up in surprise and looked around, Link fired another burst. The short cough of silenced bullets, three rounds through her chest, one woman fell hard. Switching his aim, he targeted the next Gerudo, then dropped her as well in the same, efficient manner as before.

"Guardian Squad, this is Guardian Lead. Guardian Two and I are pinned on top of the target building. Guardian Two is down, and I am immobile."

"Roger that, Guardian One, this is Guardian Three, we read you. We're coming up now."

"Goddess speed, Guardian Squad. Good luck."


End file.
